November Trip to Kashmir

Brief Report on November trip

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Kashmir trip:19 November-2 December, 2008

I would like to thank all kind souls who posted on Kashmir before, your posts made my trip possible. Thank you.

We are a family of four, 2 adults and 2 kids (2 and 8 years) made a six day trip to Kashmir in mid November. We stayed 6 nights, visited Pahalgam, Gulmarg, Sonemarg, Gardens in Srinagar and Hajrat bal mosque. We finished our trip before the unfortunate terrorist bombing in Mumbai.

You all know what to visit in Kasmir etc, I will just give you some updates, hope you will find them useful.

We stayed in Chicago house boat as per recommendation from several online group. Our 6 night stay, breakfast and dinner and trip to above mentioned places, shikara rides etc all inclusive package cost us US$720.

We spoke to few Indian tourists; they paid about 10% less than us, which are expected.

Owner of Chicago house boat is a straight forward guy, he will clarify what is included and what is not, in the quoted price.

Few things to note for those who want to visit Kashmir:

1.Political/security situation: Pretty tense, even before the Mumbai carnage. As state election was going on in phases with call for boycott from some groups, there were 3 days of undeclared curfews.

On one Friday, the curfew was to prevent procession in the street after Friday prayer. It was undeclared; soldiers were trying to prevent us from going out of the city mentioning curfew. But our Kashmiri escort pleaded with soldiers in each check point for mercy (?) and seeing our passports and kids, they eventually let us go on our way. It is scary sight, all the gun totting soldiers! Anyone can shoot any time.

Another day, it was Election Day in a district 100km away from Srinagar, but curfew (again undeclared) made all the shops closed from Srinagar all the way to Gulmarg. On our last day, there was supposed to be curfew again as one of the political heavyweight was to visit the city. We managed to get to the airport showing air plane ticket and passport (what a relief).

2.Weather: It was pretty cold, average high was 10-12.C and low dropped to 0.C to -1.C. The problem was, the hitting heating houseboat provide is wood fire which dies down by 2am, for the rest of the night it was tough on our kids. House boat folks gave us (many) blankets and hot water bags. But not good enough for kids.

Power cut is a huge problem there; hot water comes only once a day.

3.People: Very warm, very nice people, except those who are involved in the travel industry. I presume they will not speak truth about 10% of the time. But then, I found it as a common thing in rest of the India as well. Guy who escorted us to all places, said “this is the first time in 18 years someone requested to go to the Kashmir government emporium for shopping”. I was bit a pissed of with that comment, but decided to keep quiet but firm with my request.

4.Shopping: As Lonely Planet suggested, you should go to the government emporium to get an idea about the market, then you can go shop in the regular shops.

There was pressure to buy expensive carpet from relative’s shop. Initially they will tell you, ”there is no pressure to buy, let’s go only to SEE”. But once you step in, pressure mounts. I saw a really nice carpet, hey asked Indian Rupee 120,000, the price then dropped to 90,000. By the time I walked out politely, the price dropped to 80,000, with offer of deferred payment and shipping by FedEx thrown in. I hate anyone pressuring me to buy anything. So I learnt my lesson and stated politely but firmly to all my drivers in Delhi, Agra and Jaipur that I will do shopping only when I want and whereever I wish to do it.

Everything closes down by sunset in Kashmir, so evenings are pretty boring.

5.Accommodation: It was comfortable enough. But at the end we thought staying 6 nights in a house boat was too much, so you can split the time between hotel and houseboat. The Dal lake is now somewhat polluted with polythin bags and other plastic materials.

6.Food: Excellent food, we had the best food in Shamiyana retaurent on the Boulevard. It was reasonably priced, the ‘Rogan Jush’ (mutton curry with tomato) was heavenly. Two dishes with rice, bread, bottled waer cost us only 400+rupee.

If you want to visit Kashmir, you have to be careful about the security situation, especially after the Mumbai bombing. It is sad that such a nice place is going through so much trouble for last 60 years and there is still no end in sight. Houseboat people will make sure that you are safe all the time including during the out of town trip.

I hope and pray that situation will get better; the nice people of Kashmir will have their biggest source of livelihood back soon.

November Trip to Kashmir

Good review on kashmir. I am a kashmiri too. The place has a lot of natural beauty. Make sure to check the weathermans report before you come in. March to june would be the ideal months.

farook

November Trip to Kashmir

Yes ! Kashmir is a beautiful place, the real heaven on earth...alas marred by politics.......

Although I visited it in 1998 at the height of militancy...

Right from Avantipura Airport, there was an army jawan at every 10 meters... I think there is more army in Kashmir than the whole population of Kashmir........

leavingtaht apart....It%26#39;s the most beautiful place in India.

Hello Again

That was at the peak of militancy. Now many of my freiends visite regularly. Apart from the borders and certain sensitive areas. The army has been moved out from everywhere.

farook